Teachers eye funding suit as classes set to open

AUSTIN — For the 5 million students in Texas public schools, Monday should be just like the start of any academic year.

But for teachers and administrators, in addition to welcoming the 2011-12 class, something else might be on their minds — an expected lawsuit aimed at forcing the Texas Legislature to give more money to the schools and devise a more equitable fund-allocation system.

“We’re looking into it and I think it is likely this fall,” perhaps as early as late September, said J. David Thompson III of Houston. Thompson was the lead attorney in the most recent school funding lawsuit in 2006.

Many school districts across the state have expressed interest in the contemplated lawsuit because they are unhappy with what the Legislature did in this year’s session and see no other remedy, Thompson said.

Facing a $27-billion deficit, lawmakers reduced the public education budget by $4 billion for the next two fiscal years.

The massive cuts could have been avoided, said Rod Townsend, president of the Texas Association of School Administrators.

“They chose not to face the problem (because) there is a lack of political will,” said Townsend, superintendent of Decatur Independent School District about 50 miles north of Fort Worth.

Teacher groups and advocacy groups asked Perry and the Legislature to use some the more than $6 billion left in the Rainy Day Fund this year but the governor and legislative leaders said that despite the massive revenue shortfall, this was not the time to tap into the fund.

David Hinojosa, chief school finance attorney for the San Antonio-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said that although the civil rights group is also likely to file a lawsuit later this year, he is not prepared to set a date.

“We are still talking to school districts,” Hinojosa said. “A good number of districts are interested.”

In 1989, MALDEF was the legal counsel for the San Antonio-based Edgewood school district in the Edgewood v. Kirby case, the first in a series of school funding lawsuits the Legislature has faced in the last 22 years.

Members of the Republican-controlled Legislature said they have no regrets about the school funding bill they passed this session.

“We did the best we could, considering what we had to work with,” said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, author of Senate Bill 1, the legislation to fund the schools the Legislature passed in the 30-day special session.

Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, an educator who was first elected in 2006 because of widespread discontent with the Legislature’s failure to pass a bill at the time, agreed.

“I don’t know whether people would sue or not but I know we were able to do a law that we felt was fair and equitable and a law that deals with the reductions we had to make,” Patrick said.

“We went in there with every bit of legal expertise that we had available to write a good school finance law,” she said. “We built in changes that people have objected to such as ending target revenue and some of those things so hopefully that would be satisfactory” to the courts.

Nonetheless, 13 of Patricks’s Republican colleagues in the House, including Jim Landtroop of Plainview, sided with the Democratic minority in voting against Duncan’s bill on grounds that it was unfair to most school districts, particularly to rural districts.

“My biggest problem with this bill is that it doesn’t keep money in the classrooms,” Landtroop said after casting his “nay” vote.

Some studies back up his argument.

In Texas, when measured by property tax value the bottom 10 percent of school districts get about $2,500 less per student than the top 10 percent, according to the Equity Center, an Austin-based consortium of about 700 school districts.

Retiring Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, author of the 2006 school funding bill the Legislature had to pass that year under the Supreme Court deadline, said he is not worried about the next lawsuit or additional lawsuits because the Legislature is on firm legal ground.

“Since I’ve been in the Legislature we’ve always reacted to lawsuits but we are not going to rewrite the (funding) formulas,” said Chisum, who is ending his 22-year legislative career because he is running for railroad commissioner.

“We have a system now that the court says it is constitutional and the courts have always looked at the problem but their rulings have not favored anyone,” he explained. “They just tell us to fix what they see as needed fixing.”

Freshman Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, said that though he is also expecting a lawsuit, he hopes it can be avoided.

“It takes a lot of time and it’s expensive,” said Price, who is also an attorney.

“But the system needs to run its course so that this issue could result to everyone’s satisfaction, even if it is a ruling they don’t agree with,” Price said.

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“Since I’ve been in the Legislature we’ve always reacted to lawsuits but we are not going to rewrite the (funding) formulas,” said Chisum, who is ending his 22-year legislative career because he is running for railroad commissioner."
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I wish all the rest of the incumbents who were in office since 2006 would also retire! I'm voting against ALL of them if they were there in '06.
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I hope the lawsuit succeeds! The only time these pompous jerks think about education is at election time....they throw it around like a baseball...and then put it up when the election is over!
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Defeat ALL of these so-called legislators...let them know who's calling the shots...US NOT THEM!
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The State of Texas is a republican form of government. Elected officials make decisions and are put there by the voters. A law suit against the state, as this case appears to be, seeks to by pass
the legislature and ask a court to force the legislature to act on the wishes of the aggrieved group: teachers and administrators.
We learn many nuances from this article:
1. Administrators who are complaining telegraph this message: we are not good and adept managers, only paper shufflers. And superintends do not want to fire any central or building administrators. The Good Old Boy and Girl network is to close to release one of them.
2. Teachers we are not creative enough to figure our how to teach with less resources. We want a salary increase and that is it. Districts could close a shortfall if the copy machines were removed from every building and teachers used existing technology to teach. There is no excuse to reams and reams of paper for copy sheets and make work.
3. School boards, face the same problem as the legislature faced last session, but they do not have the political courage to raise taxes within the district. The voters do not want to nor can they afford to pay more taxes.
Education is important but the product will be delivered differently. That is the wave of the future and for years to come.
Schools will need to do more with less. A fact of life.

I've taught in Texas public schools for 27 years and for 27 years the State Legislature has consistently and perpetually been telling teachers and schools to do more with less. In lean times, we are the 1st thing cut. In boom times, we are the last to see additional funding. A wise woman once said, "To show me your values, show me your budget." We apparently value schools well below prisons, roads, and official proclamations about the state cactus, or handgun, or whatever else. Underfunding education (Texas ranks 43rd out of 50 states) is a classic case of penny-wise and pound-foolish. By the way, if you know that that cliche comes to us via Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, thank a teacher.

Why don’t teachers concentrate on teaching and let the administrators worry about finances? Let each person do their job and don’t worry whether the other person is doing theirs. Teachers nowadays do not care about the children, they worry about a paycheck. Let us get back to the days of teachers teaching because they feel they have a calling to teach and being paid is secondary

There is so much waste in the public school system but no one wants to admit the schools are over burdened at the mid and upper management levels. This is just another chance for a greedy attorney to get a little richer off the tax payers in Texas. When will government employees and teachers realize there is a bottom to the barrel and they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. It is not a bottomless pity of money. More money will not increase the level of education, never has and never will.

"Let us get back to the days of teachers teaching because they feel they have a calling to teach and being paid is secondary". I have never heard of anyone that considers being paid a secondary consideration.
Granted in the past teachers had a real love for teaching, but don't think for one minute that paycheck was ever a secondary consideration. Not for teachers or in any other proffesion for that matter.

"Why don’t teachers concentrate on teaching and let the administrators worry about finances? Let each person do their job and don’t worry whether the other person is doing theirs. Teachers nowadays do not care about the children, they worry about a paycheck. "
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REALLY??? It seems like people think teachers should work for free and STILL get needed supplies for their students out of their own pockets which they do all of the time! Even though gasoline and groceries are going up...teachers shouldn't worry about how they will feed their families or pay their rent...just teach the children!!
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Are you listening teachers? Don't worry your pretty little heads about finances and paychecks...big daddy will take care of you....
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That's the mindset of a lot of people...that's why education is a low priority...because people who think like that barely graduated from high school...come to think of it...maybe they didn't graduate...maybe they just "attended".
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The time to cut education funding is after teaching theory is reformed to make classroom function more successful. America has the effects of the rest of the industrialized nations to observe for decades to put it on a fast track. A successful track record exists to which we can compare our public schools and make changes.

I hope the lawsuit is the answer and starts us on a change to higher quality public education.

The education system in the US is broken. There is no other way to put it. The teachers are asked to teach to all levels of students at the same time (differentiation) with record numbers of students in each class. The material that is covered related directly to what is on the standardized test for that year (last year was TAKS and this year is STARS). Yet, the testing is flawed as well because they are given to all levels of students with varying levels of difficulties. Millions of dollars are spent on these elaborate systems of standardized testing that continue to show teachers are not able to get all of the students to know the basics.

Many students in public schools today come to school with chips on their shoulders and no respect for the teachers. They know that they won't be failed and will be passed on to the next grade because the level of standardized test they take is adjusted to what they can do. Additionally teachers hands are tied when it comes to discipline because many parents today believe it is the school system's job to raise their children and be a day care center for them as well. Parents today are quick to defend their children and blame the teacher for everything that happens, even when the children are to blame.

I have to say that I am very thankful that my children attend a private school. They are learning the truth and are required to have responsibility for their actions and decisions. The education they are receiving is fantastic and worth every penny that we are paying for it. It is a budgetary choice that we make every single month.

What happened to the lottery will save the the public school system? People who oppose the lottery purposely voted for the lottery to pass simply b/c of the spin that it will save the public schools, yet here we are again! I don't think expecting recompensation for working A JOB at minimal pay is unreasonable, particularly after spending an outrageous sum for a required 4 year education. Come on people!!! Did you go to college expecting to work for free? Not to mention the poor teachers now have to deal with kids that speak multiple languages b/c our government continues to allow refugees to come into our country although we can't sustain ourselves!